The prior art is replete with devices for dispensing predetermined amounts of liquids and granular materials from associated containers. The crowded nature of the measuring dispenser art is indicative of the great effort which has been expended by prior art inventors to provide a device which can adequately dispense a desired amount of material from an associated container. However, despite this great effort, the measuring dispenser art has heretofore been devoid of a device for consistently dispensing predetermined amounts of liquid from a container on multiple occasions.
In this regard, there is a great need in the restaurant industry, for example, for a measuring dispenser which will permit liquid egg to be uniformly poured from a container in consistent amounts on multiple occasions. Typically, a cook in a restaurant is faced with the task of preparing a food dish which includes one egg, or multiples thereof, as an ingredient therein. Similarly, scrambled eggs and fried egg sandwiches are a common item on breakfast menus. It would be highly desirable if a cook had a device which would consistently and quickly permit liquid egg to be metered from a container in predetermined amounts.
The prior art has posed no solution whatsoever to the problem of providing consistent amounts of liquid egg on multiple occasions, and even more so in the case that it is desirable to dispense consistently, accurately, and conveniently, predetermined amounts of more than one liquids, such as egg-white and egg-yolk separately, for example.
Examples of known measuring dispensers for dispensing liquid from associated containers are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,778,087 to Desai and 4,105,142 to Morris Jr. Additionally, known measuring dispensers for dispensing granular material, such as soap or sugar, from an associated container or sugar bowl are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,358,886 to Provenza; 2,778,532 to Raverty et al.; 2,005,919 to Militello; and 1,053,316 to Psikal. In the liquid dispensing devices of Desai and Morris Jr., the concept of dispensing fluids from a container for holding a metered amount of fluid therein is disclosed. However, neither of these devices are suitable for use with liquid eggs due to the viscosity of the eggs and the structure of the devices disclosed in such patents which would be difficult to clean after storing and dispensing liquid eggs.
The Provenza and Raverty et al patents disclose devices having structures which are sufficient for dispensing granular material from an associated container. However, both of these devices are insufficient for dispensing a liquid product, such as liquid eggs, from an associated container as a result of the structure and operation of the value system associated with such measuring dispensers. Accordingly, there has been a considerable need for an improved measuring dispenser for permitting liquid, such as liquid egg, to be sufficiently stored in a container for a prolonged period of time and for dispensing such liquid therefrom in consistent amounts.
The present invention solves all of the aforementioned problems and will thus greatly benefit all those who have a need to uniformly and efficiently dispense predetermined metered portions of one or two liquids from respective associated container(s).